The present invention relates generally to machines for storing and dispensing re-usable articles for rental by customers and subsequent return to the machine after use. Articles which are commonly rented by customers for a relatively short time period include videocassettes or tapes, and the like. The present invention is particularly directed to a machine and method for renting videocassettes, but is applicable to any re-usable, rentable articles.
Various machines for dispensing articles for sale or rental have been proposed in the past. Videocassette rental machines generally have a video screen associated with a keyboard for the customer to enter data concerning selected videocassettes. Typically, each videocassette title is associated with a predetermined selection code which must be entered by the customer to retrieve that videocassette from the machine. The customer normally ascertains the code associated with the desired videocassette by scrolling a display of available titles and associated codes on the screen. This is inefficient, since customers can take quite a long time to make a selection, and have to repeatedly return to the listing of available titles if selections prove to be unavailable, potentially tying up the terminal for a significant length of time. In other cases, a booklet or catalog listing titles along with the appropriate codings is provided in the vicinity of the machine. Similar problems arise with this arrangement, in that customers must decide on several titles in advance in case one should prove unavailable, or repeatedly leave the control panel to refer to the listing when their requests are not available.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,467 of Gould et al., a vending ordering terminal is described at which a user can selectively preview or order a videocassette. The terminal stores a plurality of videocassette and delivers selected videocassettes to users. The terminal includes a listing of the videocassettes with their unique codes from which the customer can select a desired title and enter it at the keyboard. Again, if a selected title is unavailable, the customer must make repeated selections or else abandon the attempt.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,810 of Shore et al. describes another film vending unit which dispenses selected films to a user. The unit is provided with a list of the titles and associated numbers of each film to be vended from the unit. Again the patron must locate the number of the film according to its title only, and if this film should be unavailable, must return to the list to select a further title. The selection process can therefore be lengthy, resulting in one customer tying up the unit for a significant time period and possibly reducing potential rental profits.